Coming off of a tough overtime loss to the Colorado School of the Mines Orediggers on Friday night, the Skyhawks pulled away from the Adams State Grizzlies in the second half Tuesday night and got the 80-65 victory to get back to their winning ways.
The Skyhawks held a narrow eight point lead going into the halftime on senior night. It looked like it was going to be a chippy, close game like when these two teams played back in December. That game ended with a final score of 95-91 with the Skyhawks pulling out the narrow victory.
But in the second half, the Skyhawks hit their stride.. The Skyhawks quickly made it a double digit lead with a three from senior leading scorer Josh Blaylock and back-to-back buckets from second leading scorer Rasmus Bach.
The Skyhawks never looked back. When the game ended and everyone looked up at the scoreboard, 80-65 is what they saw with the Skyhawks cruising to their 23rd victory of the season.
“This was nice,” Bach said. “You never really get over losing until you win again, so now we feel good and are ready to go out and try to win the RMAC.”
FLC (23-4, 18-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) led for nearly the entire game and held their biggest lead, 25 points, with just over eight minutes to go in the game.
Blaylock finished with a game-high 20 points in his last regular season home game. Bach chipped in for 17 points and Daniel Hernandez, who started for the sick senior Will Morse, scored nine points. Junior Brandon Wilson also got in the action and had his fifth double double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.
“I thought Brandon Wilson was an absolute stud inside tonight,” Skyhawks head coach Bob Pietrack said after the game. “I thought it was overall a good team effort considering it’s a Tuesday night and with such a big game coming Friday.”
This win meant a lot to the four seniors on the team.
“It’s been great just to be at this school,” Blaylock said. “I remember my first day in the gym, man, and I didn’t know what the future would hold but it has been a successful ride and I have been loving playing with my brothers.”
Kain Lucero, Ross Buchman, Will Morse, and especially Blaylock have kept the winning tradition going on at FLC and will always be a part of the program, Pietrack said.
“I love those guys,” Pietrack said. “Got the world’s greatest teammate in Lucero, a wild man in Buck who has just been fun, every day he brings such great energy. A career hawk in Will Morse who will go down as one of the all-timers and then Joshua Blaylock who I have no words for. No one should ever wear number one again here.”
Fort Lewis will head to Salt Lake City to face Westminster (15-7, 15-5 in RMAC) in a pivotal matchup with the Griffins Friday night.
“It’s a really tough game Friday,” Pietrack said. “They are one of the top four teams in our league and have been all season long. One of the better coaches in our league in Norm Parrish, a hall of fame coach. It’s going to be the ultimate challenge for us.”
If the Skyhawks win on Friday night, they will clinch at least a share of the RMAC title with Mines. The Skyhawks are hoping that the Orediggers will lose one of their tough games ahead of them this weekend when they play host to UC-Colorado Springs and Metro State.
If they lose either of those games and FLC wins Friday, the Skyhawks will win the title outright and host the RMAC Shootout for a second consecutive year. Mines has the tiebreaker over the Skyhawks after the overtime win in Durango last Friday.